A slight distortion of the picture: I accept that Aussie selectors have occasionally been brutal in encouraging competition for places (not least in dropping Clarke when it seemed reasonable to let him become the first Aussie ever to become a senior player without suffering that fate)... but the focus on developing players did lead to Australia having a superb academy before everyone else... and you cannot overlook the obscene levels of loyalty to players whose face fitted - aside from anything else, after bursting onto the scene and making a sensation eary impact, Lee had 5 years of at best ordinary (occasionally abject) performances (especially away from home) and yet remained the golden boy.

In the Ashes of 2005 the loyalty card led to a struggling Hayden opening in place of the (obviously in form and superior) Hussey, to a struggling Martyn playing ahead of an in-form Hodge... to a struggling Gilchrist playing ahead of an in-form Haddin, and to a struggling Katich playing ahead of an in form Watson despite clear indications that the seam bowling would need bolstering due to Australia carrying out of form seamers who had taken places that would - on your "here and now" principle - have gone elsewhere (perhaps to Bracken and Noffke).